Security cameras in Singapore homes have been hacked, with the footage stolen and shared online.

Clips from the hacked footage have been uploaded on pornographic sites recently, with several explicitly tagged as being from Singapore.

The videos, which can last from under a minute to more than 20 minutes, feature couples, breastfeeding mothers and even children.

Most of them are in various states of undress or compromising positions.

Many faces can be clearly seen in locations such as the living room and bedrooms. Some are seen using the toilet with the door ajar.

In one video, time-stamped March 2020, a teenage girl can be seen in a white T-shirt and panties with school books around her. One of them is an O-level Ten-Year Series book used by students preparing for the exam.

In many videos tagged as being from Singapore, the homes have layouts typical of a Housing Board flat.

The footage appears to be from Internet Protocol (IP) cameras that are common in homes here. They are installed for security purposes or to remotely monitor children, the elderly, domestic workers and pets.

A closer check of the videos revealed that a group dedicated to hacking IP cameras was behind the hacking.

The group, which can be found on social messaging platform Discord, has almost 1,000 members across the globe.

As of Saturday, it has claimed to have shared more than 3TB of clips with over 70 members who paid a subscription fee of US$150 (S$203) for lifetime access.

The victims appear to be from various countries, including Thailand, South Korea and Canada. A 700MB “sample”, containing about 4,000 videos and pictures from the hacked footage, is provided free.

A significant portion of the clips seemed to be from IP cameras in Singapore.

TUTORIALS

The group claims to have a list of more than 50,000 hacked cameras that members can access. It also claims that VIP members will be taught how to “explore, watch live and even record” hacked cameras through tutorials and personalised sessions.

Mr Clement Lee, the solution architect for Asia-Pacific for Check Point Software Technologies, said many IP cameras are at risk as they are typically installed to be accessed remotely via the Internet.

“Hacking of IP cameras is possible if they are accessible from a central cloud service or exposed to the Internet,” he said.

“Usually, it is the result of poor password management.”

He advises those with such cameras at home to ensure their software is up to date and to avoid using simple passwords.

“Never assume your camera is secure,” he said. “The best way to avoid falling victim to hackers is to avoid sharing personal details online.”

Criminal lawyer James Ow Yong said that anyone who hacks such cameras will run afoul of the law even if they are outside Singapore.

“The Computer Misuse Act has extra-jurisdictional reach, and applies as long as either the accused was in Singapore, or the computer, program or data was in Singapore at the time of the offence,” he said.

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — A Craighead County man was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty in a human trafficking case, according to KATV content partner Region 8 News.

Tyler Scott Sowell, 26, of Brookland pleaded guilty to patronizing a minor victim of human trafficking.null

Jonesboro police arrested Sowell and Olivia Grace Deroeck, 27, of Jonesboro in March after an investigation. Police alleged she and Sowell were in contact “making sales and setting up timing with a minor.” In Sowell’s case, he was also given a 60-month suspended sentence in the case, plus ordered to pay court costs and fees.

Deroeck was also given 15 years in prison this week after pleading guilty in a child trafficking case. She pleaded guilty to the trafficking of persons if the victim is a minor during an Oct. 6 court appearance.

In addition to the prison sentence, Deroeck was given a 60-month suspended sentence, given a no-contact order with the victim in the case, complete alcohol and drug rehab and psychiatric treatment, plus provide “truthful testimony in the trial of any co-defendants.”

RENO  — A Nevada defensive tackle who was expected to start this season was among 28 suspects arrested in Reno as part of a week-long human-trafficking sting led by the FBI, authorities said Friday.

Christopher Green, 21, has been suspended from the Wolf Pack football team pending further investigation, Nevada spokesman Chad Hartley said. Hartley told KOLO-TV they learned of the incident Friday and were attempting to gather additional information.

The Washoe County sheriff’s office said in a statement the FBI’s Northern Nevada Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force worked with local law enforcement to target people trying to pay minors for sexual acts.

All 28 suspects went to a south Reno residence to “knowingly engage in, and pay for, sex acts with a minor,” the sheriff said.

Green, a 6-foot-2, 325-pound senior from Los Angeles, was being held in the county jail Friday without bail on suspicion of engaging in solicitation for prostitution of a child, and attempted child abuse, neglect or endangerment.

Jail records didn’t list an attorney or a scheduled court appearance.

Green made 16 tackles last season as a junior starting five games and appearing in all 13.

Nevada opens the season at home Oct. 24 against Wyoming.

FULTONDALE, Ala. —

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office announced Friday multiple law enforcement agencies shut down a human trafficking operation in Fultondale on Thursday.

In conjunction with the FBI and the Fultondale, Trussville, Gardendale, Bessemer police departments, the JCSO Vice and Narcotics Team busted a human trafficking operation in the 1700 block of Fulton Road.

Two 39-year-old men, Charles Hartley, of Auburn, and Nehemiah Yearby, of Hueytown, were arrested during the bust.

Hartley is charged with second-degree human trafficking, trafficking in stolen identities and possession of a forged instrument. His bonds are set at $55,000 total.

Yearby is facing the following charges: second-degree human trafficking, possession of controlled substances, second-degree receiving stolen property, certain persons forbidden to possess a firearm and possession of marijuana. His bonds are set at $36,000 total.

Both men are in the Jefferson County Jail.

Thirteen others were arrested on prostitution charges during the bust. Sgt. Joni Money says, “as is common in these type cases, most of these subjects will not admit to being victims.”

JCSO says the Fultondale operation is completely shut down and will not continue.

One person is dead and an FBI agent is injured after a shooting in Madison Heights.

The FBI confirms that during an arrest an agent was shot and the suspect was killed on Friday evening near John R and 12 Mile Road. The location was near a Texas Roadhouse restaurant.

Eric Allport was fatally shot Friday afternoon during an attempted arrest, said FBI Special Agent in Charge Steven D’ Antuono outside the scene.

The agent shot remained hospitalized but in good condition Friday night, he said. 

D’Antuono declined to discuss details of the shooting but said it took place as a team of agents tried to arrest Allport for a federal weapons offense.

The arrest was apart of an ongoing case, he said.

An investigation will be conducted by the FBI’s Inspection Division. 

“It’s always stressful and concerning when one of our agents gets shot or as any law enforcement officer gets shot … while their doing their duty,” D’Antuono said. “We’re trying to effect a lawful arrest and this is what happens.”

Further details were not immediately available.

Darcie Moran is a breaking news reporter and podcaster for the Detroit Free Press. She’s served as an investigative reporter and covered justice issues, crime, protests, wildfires and government affairs. Contact Moran: dmoran@freepress.com. Twitter: @darciegmoran. 

After the breakdown of their marriage, the unnamed man was supposed to move out of the home he shared with Josieli Lopes, 36 in Itapema, Brazil.

He is alleged to have poisoned a piece of meat and fed it to her when he found out she had already started a relationship with another man.

However, the baby also consumed a fatal dose of the unspecified poison when it drank it’s mother’s breast milk.

As she fell gravely ill, he said he would take her and the baby to hospital, local media reports.

However, the man allegedly drove the dying pair to a remote jungle in Rio dos Caedros, in southern Brazil, where he buried their bodies.

Josieli’s family became suspicious after her estranged husband reportedly sent messages to them from her phone about moving to a new location.

After concerned relatives tried calling her, her number became unavailable.

Josieli’s teenage son raised the alarm after he noticed the message appeared to have been composed by someone else.

The 34-year-old man was arrested by cops after he confessed to killing the mother a week after she and her baby were reported missing on September 15, local media says.

The bodies of Josieli and her baby were discovered in the wooded jungle on September 22.

According to police, when they questioned the alleged killer, he told them he had not intended to kill the infant.

Cops say he told them he had poisoned a piece of meat which was eaten by Josieli and was not aware the poison would affect their baby who was breastfed shortly after.

He offered to assist police by taking them to where he is said to have buried the bodies.

According to Chief of Police, Diogo Medeiros, gaps in the suspect’s account of what happened had made his story confusing.

Police are still investigating the case.

The Coweta County Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security say they focus on these sex crimes – arresting prostitutes, pimps, Johns, and also drug dealers – because it helps them identify victims of human trafficking. 

The surveillance video the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office provided to FOX 5 does not include the victims of human trafficking. 

In total, 18 people were arrested in this sting operation. Deputies say they also identified four victims of human trafficking during the operation who are said to have been forced to work in prostitution.

Investigators say they also arrested a man they say deals drugs to people working in the prostitution industry.

Since October of 2019, these stings by the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office have led to the arrests of 71 people for a variety of crimes.

The sheriff’s office says victims of human trafficking are provided with a number of resources.

Investigators say some women are victims of human trafficking are reluctant to say anything to authorities, possibly because they are being threatened by someone.  

They say that they give the same resources and information to all of the women, in case they need it later.

The U.S. Marshals Service is joining the hunt for a 22-year-old Oklahoma man accused of sexually assaulting a 6-month-old, recording the encounter and sharing it on social media.

Brice Gage Watkins may have been in the Oklahoma City area as of Tuesday afternoon, and he has ties to Norman and Enid, authorities said.

The Marshals Service is getting involved after several weeks of Watkins remaining on the run.

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He faces a handful of felony charges for allegedly committing lewd acts to a child, manufacturing child pornography and distributing it to at least two women.

One of the women turned the video over to police on Aug. 11, telling investigators she recognized the child in the video and believed it was filmed in the victim’s home, Enid News reported. She was a friend of the child’s mother.

The second woman told police she received the video along with a message reading “whose child is this,” according to the outlet.

Both women reportedly told investigators that they believed Watkins was the man seen molesting the child in the video.

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Enid police said in mid-August that they believed their counterparts in Norman had taken Watkins into custody but subsequently said that suspect turned out to be someone else.

The number of people being trafficked into the UK could increase as criminals look to exploit those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, an expert has warned.

Unseen UK chief executive Andrew Wallis said thousands of victims arrive in the country each year through traffickers, having been promised a chance to escape poverty or support their families back home financially.

But instead they find themselves at the mercy of criminal gangs who force them into illegal work to pay off inflated debts while threatening them with violence.

Mr Wallis, whose charity aims to end modern slavery, said he believed the multi-billion-pound global human trafficking industry would eventually become “more lucrative” than the drugs trade.

And he warned that more people could be at risk of falling victim to traffickers in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Mr Wallis told the PA news agency: “I think as a result of Covid-19 and the economic downturn we are going to see an increase (in human trafficking to the UK) because as the economy shrinks and as people become more vulnerable, the risk of exploitation increases.

“With the huge global imbalance between economies there will be a draw. If you’ve got no options in life, if your options are grinding poverty and someone says ‘there’s a way out of this’, then human nature takes over.”

Traffickers use various methods to find their victims, including through posting adverts promising the chance to earn more money in western Europe, Mr Wallis said.

But what victims do not realise is that they are being “set-up”, he added.

“When they arrive, what they thought was a 400 US dollar debt (£302) that they have to pay off is suddenly 4,000 US dollars (£3002), so the debt bondage control begins,” Mr Wallis said.

“They are then forced to work or subjected to fines meaning they can never pay it off.”

Home Office figures show there were 10,627 potential victims of modern slavery referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) last year – a 52% increase from 2018.

Unseen UK received a further 7,000 calls to its helpline over the same period, Mr Wallis said.

However, a report by the Centre for Social Justice in July this year estimated there could be at least 100,000 victims of modern slavery in the UK.

The vast majority of victims who arrive from outside the UK will have entered through legal means, either thinking they had a legitimate job or a visa, Mr Wallis said.

But he said some traffickers try to get victims into the country clandestinely.

“And that is usually because they are going to end up in criminal exploitation working in cannabis farms or in nail bars,” he said.

“What we often see with the cannabis farms is that they are often controlled by organised criminal gangs.”

Romanian nationals and UK residents make up the majority of victims who contact the charity’s helpline, Mr Wallis said, while Vietnamese and Chinese were the most common nationalities for victims from Asia.

The most common nationalities referred to the NRM were from the UK, Albania and Vietnam, according to Home Office figures.

Mr Wallis said while the Government was now better at finding and identifying modern slavery and trafficking, the true scale of the issue was still not yet known.

The Home Office said the UK’s modern slavery legislation had introduced a maximum life sentence for traffickers, as well as “enhanced protection” for for victims.

“We are doing all we can to stop ruthless criminals intent on profiteering from vulnerable migrants,” a spokeswoman said.

“We continue to work with counterparts overseas to reduce exploitation and bring perpetrators to justice.”

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WPMT) — A Pennsylvania man convicted in June of being the leader of a human trafficking operation was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Sylvia H. Rambo, U.S. Attorney David J. Freed announced Friday.

Miguel Scott Arnold, 33, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and marijuana, possession with intent to distribute heroin, Freed said.

Arnold was part of a significant sex trafficking operation that exploited over 20 victims, including juveniles, according to Freed. Arnold and his co-conspirators coerced the sex trafficking victims though fraud, physical assault, the deprivation of heroin to addicted victims, and threats of violence.

Four co-defendants in the case previously pleaded guilty to engaging in sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, participated in a conspiracy that began in Harrisburg in the fall of 2015, and continued until it was dismantled in August 2016, according to Freed.

Arnold and the co-conspirators rented hotel rooms and posted “escort” advertisements and photographs on backpage.com, a website that the FBI has since seized and which is no longer operational. Arnold and his co-conspirators would frequently solicit women to engage in prostitution by lying to them about the services that they would be expected to perform, Freed said.

Arnold and his co-conspirators would also target victims who were vulnerable by virtue of their age, financial insecurity, or drug addiction. At least three victims of the conspiracy were minors, one as young as 14 years old, according to Freed.

Arnold and the others would take the majority of the money made during the course of the prostitution business, and distributed drugs to the women, including heroin, Freed said.

In addition to Arnold, four others from Harrisburg were charged in the indictment, according to Freed:

Tevin Bynoe, age 27, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion on September 20, 2018, and is awaiting sentencing.

Terrence Hawkins, age 26, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion on September 20, 2018, and is awaiting sentencing.

Joshua Guity-Nunez, age 31, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment on July 10.

Emonie Murphy, age 23, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion on August 27, 2018, and was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment on September 3.